'The Politician' Season 2 Preview: Will Payton become a crazy, power-hugry egomaniacal politician again?
Payton Hobart’s (Ben Platt) wild political ambitions, that disappeared for a while, found itself back at full force at the end of Season 1 of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan’s Netflix comedy series, ‘The Politician’. For the man who knows that he will, one day, become the president of the United States, the stakes in Season 2, will now be higher than ever.
Per the official Netflix synopsis, in Season 2 of ‘The Politician’, Payton will take on Dede Standish (Judith Light) in the New York State Senate race. This is something we saw at the end of Season 1. Dede is a long-time incumbent. She is greatly admired as a Senate Majority Leader. And her secret weapon is her no-nonsense Chief of Staff, Hadassah Gold (Bette Midler).
Dede’s re-election was supposed to be easy. As was evident in season 1, so confident were they of their victory, Dede and Hadassah did not even have proper campaign machinery in place. Payton, with the help of his friends and those who believe in him -- Alice Charles (Julia Schlaepfer), McAfee Westbrook (Laura Dreyfuss), James Sullivan (Theo Germaine), Skye Leighton (Rahne Jones), and even Astrid Sloan (Lucy Boynton) -- will surely give the duo a good and tough fight.
But the question remains: Will Payton fall back into his old habits? Will he become the crazy, power-hungry, egomaniacal politician once again?
Season 1 of ‘The Politician’ proved beyond doubt that Payton is not his own best friend. He is prone to control issues, has a number of insecurities, and quickly loses his cool when things don’t go his way. He is known to make rash decisions. Yes, he may be cunning. But his own ambitions often get in the way of his sanity.
As we see in the trailer for Season 2, he makes life hell for Dede and Hadassah. He knows Dede’s biggest secret – she’s in a throuple. But is that wild card enough? Because being the cunning politicians they are, Dede and Hadassah are sure to be able to dig up dirt on Payton. In fact, it seems, from the trailer, that Payton’s mother, Georgina Hobart (Gwyneth Paltrow), would become their source on this dirt that would upstage him and everything he's hoping to accomplish.
So, when that happens, will Payton manage to keep his cool? Or will he end up alienating all those who put their lives on hold to make his dream come true? Will he do right to Alice, who walked out on her own wedding for Payton? Will he treat McAfee well, whom he has alienated in the past? Will he make sure to listen to James more, especially when not listening to his sound advice has cost him dearly in the past?
More importantly, will Payton finally learn that you can’t plan every step and every move in your life? That some things will have to take their natural course. What Payton needs more than anything in the world to succeed is to internalize the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
All through Season 1, Payton constantly believed in one thing: He is not a good person. But he wants to do good things. Maybe, it’s time he finally tries to change that. Maybe, Season 2 will really see Payton as the good person he can be. If nothing, Payton always has the ghost of his best friend River Barkley (David Corenswet) to set him on the right path when he falters, doesn’t he?
Season 2 of ‘The Politician’ drops on Netflix on June 19.
